The Story of the Coat

The cats are only a minor part of this story ... in case you're just here for them.

Anyway.

Years ago, like a decade ago, my workplace decided they were too busy to stop working on the weekends for even one weekend to have the company picnic. So instead, they brought a catered lunch in for us, and also gave everyone a lined coat/jacket/windbreaker type coat. It was a dark blue, but not navy, and it was a very nice coat.

I wore this coat for years every day in the winter when I started walking daily. It had elastic at the end of the sleeves so I could pull my hands back into the sleeves and hold the ends shut to keep out the cold. It had double pockets--a set inside and a set outside. I never did figure out what that was for, but sometimes it came in handy when I wanted to go shopping real quick but didn't want to take a purse. I had enough pockets for wallet, keys, and a pair of gloves. The sleeves were lined as was the hood.

The only problem with it was that it wasn't a men's or women's coat--it was a each-size-fits-both coat. It came in small, medium, large, and probably more than that, but even the small was a bit large for me.

However, it worked; I also wore lighter jackets underneath it when it got really cold, and it wasn't too awful big.

That was fifty pounds ago. Since I lost all the weight during the year two years ago, I could actually take one side of the coat and wrap it around to my back, and then lay the other side around to the other side of me. This would have been warm except there was no way to keep it closed doubled over like that.

And then the zipper started failing. I'd lost the zipper pull years ago, but a friend made me one for my birthday. The zipper kept getting stuck, and I'd have to jiggle it and try to gently undo it, and finally succeed.

This was still all functional and did not warrant me getting a new coat. I hate clothes shopping.

Last Saturday, however, as I was walking, I started getting too warm and, as usual, tried to remove the first layer--the first layer being this big blue coat with the zipper problem.

The zipper got stuck. With every indication of being stuck permanently. If I stop walking to step out of it, I will get chilled; if I don't get it off soon, I will get overheated. Since I hate being cold, I chose the overheating as the lesser of the two evils and just worked on the zipper while I walked.

I tugged so hard at one point my zipper pull came off. Luckily I kept hold of it and was able to stuff it in a pocket and save it to be put on again.

It took me half an hour to get that stupid zipper to come all the way apart. And I thought to myself, well, that's unsustainable. I can't have that happen again. Sigh. I'm going to have to go buy a new coat. I hate clothes shopping. (Yes, I really do think like that.)

What made it worse was that I was sick. So sick, in fact, that I went to one of those doc-in-a-box not-the-emergency-room-but-open-on-saturday places, after I went to breakfast with my parents. (I'd been sick for about three days so I figured I was long past being contagious.) The doc-in-a-box said I had sinusitis and prescribed antibiotics and a steroid nasal spray.

And then, instead of going home and resting like a sensible person, I went to a department store to buy a coat. Because that's where you buy coats, right?

The selection was terrible, and I went to two different stores before I found one I liked. It was a small, but it fit over the lighter jacket I had on, so I figured it would work.

Here I am in it, with Colby in the
background. The grate is the door
to Thimble's carrier that he sleeps in.
PS. Yes, I know about the front camera.
I don't like it--the resolution is less.

Well. Mission accomplished. I don't have to go hunting for a new coat for another decade or more, hopefully. The next morning I went for a walk as usual, this time in my new coat.

I discovered that although it looked nice, and the middle part felt warm, the manufacturers had sacrificed function for form. The sleeves were unlined, the ends of the sleeves had no elastic, and oddly, I was getting a chill across my back. (It was suggested later that this might have been due to a "vent" in the back that apparently is fairly common in coats.)

I believe there may have been some curse words involved in my thoughts at these discoveries. Now not only did I have to go out shopping on a Sunday (which I hate, since this is my day to stay home away from people), but I had to return one coat and then go somewhere else to get another one. 

Seriously?

Fine. Whatever. It was too cold to simply go without, and I was not getting stuck for another half-an-hour in my old coat.

Something one of the ladies at the department store said had triggered a thought--I could probably get more of a selection at an outfitters store, the kind of places that sell fishing rods and hunting gear and stuff. We have two of those in town now, new places (which I think means they opened sometime in the past three years). I chose the closest one to the department store where I had to go anyway to return the Saturday coat.

This was Cabela's. I'd never been in there before. It was huge. I asked the lady who was at the front of the store kind of like a greeter and kind of not if she could help me. She did so by getting another young woman to help me. 

Isabel was absolutely awesome. I'd brought in the old blue coat and pointed out the things I wanted. The length, the lining--in the sleeves too please--, the presence of a hood, the elastic at the end of the sleeves, pockets big enough for my hands, in gloves, in the sleeves, to be put in; long enough sleeves to accomplish this, wind-resistant if not a wind-breaker ... you get the idea. It was a laundry list of requirements and it was not easy finding a coat that fit them all.

But she managed, after going back and forth between several areas (apparently they, Cabela's, think it is logical to put the manufacturers' stuff together instead of "all winter coats", all "light jackets" etc). We even ducked into the guys' coats for a while, but ended up back in the women's coats, and finally found one that worked. The only thing I don't like about it is that the closure over the zipper is via velcro instead of giant snaps, and my preferred fuzzy gloves get caught on the velcro.

That's something I can adapt to, however, whether by finding different gloves (eventually), or by putting on my gloves after I have the coat on.

So here is the new coat. I had now done this picture taking thing two days in a row, and brought home two different coats for the cats to smell and investigate, so Thimble decided the mirror picture thing needed a bit closer look this time.

Here I am in the one I kept.
The tags are still hanging from the sleeves.

I went for a walk Monday morning with some trepidation (am I going to have to return this one too?) but it was admirable. It was nice and warm, even a bit warmer than my old one. Plus it's brighter in color, which, since I walk before dawn, might come in helpful one day. (Mostly I consider it my job to stay out of the way of the cars, since who in their right mind is out walking in 30 degree weather in the dark? That's not something you, as a car driver, are going to expect to see. Therefore it's my job to avoid you, not the other way around. (Although I appreciate the efforts the cars that do see me make to avoid me.))

The cats have approved of the coat, although Apricot wasn't too sure about the sound of the velcro. I don't have anything else velcro in the house, so he's never heard it before. He's gotten used to it after a week. 

Since I haven't seen my zipper pull friend yet, I haven't gotten my special zipper pull put back on yet, and Thimble (who wanted so bad to play with it and I wouldn't let him) has been investigating the zipper pull on this coat every time I hang it up when I come in. Apparently in the hopes that the old fun zipper pull will appear, I guess!